For these Brazilian footballing legends, competitive play wasn’t a diversion from societal ills, but a means to redress them.
byKurt Shaw

In three separate decades, the acrobatic Félix Miélli Venerando occupied the Brazilian goal, the highlight of his career coming with the nation’s 1970 World Cup victory. When Félix was done with his goal-saving career, he turned his sights to saving kids, establishing and overseeing a football school for marginalized children in São Paulo, while simultaneously lobbying for better government services on their behalf.

Illustration by Filip Peraić

Defender:Paulo André

While playing for Corinthians, this famed on-field leader almost singlehandedly shut down the vicious Chelsea attack on route to the 2012 Club World Cup. But André’s bold defense extends beyond the field. The 31-year-old has organized the Bom Senso FC, a professional players union in Brazil, and Instituto Paulo André, a nonprofit dedicated to arts education in the favelas of his native city of Campinas.

Illustration by Filip Peraić

Defender:Marinho Peres

Hard-working Marinho Peres was known for sweating until he bled. After a disappointing fourth-place finish at the 1974 World Cup for Brazil, Peres eventually left his native land to play for Barcelona, only to find the Spanish Army planning to press-gang him into uniform not long after. Refusing to bow down to the Fascists, Peres arranged an escape worthy of a spy novel and fled to France.

Illustration by Filip Peraić

Back:Paulo Cézar Caju

Born in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Caju talked his way into a tryout for Botafogo and almost instantly became a star. Flamboyant and combative, he was a dangerous presence on the left side of the attack on Brazil’s 1970 and 1974 World Cup teams, but also in public debates. Caju famously wrote a column in the satirical magazine O Pasquim where he challenged the repression of the military dictatorships. Though other players had grown Afros before him, Caju was perhaps the first to wear one self-consciously as an expression of Black Power in Brazil.

Illustration by Filip Peraić

Back:Francisco Carregal

Until 1904, Brazilian soccer was the domain of rich, white elite, but Francisco Carregal, a black worker on the textile line in Bangu, played the game so well that factory bosses invited him onto their team. Carregal paved the way for Brazil’s poor to dominate the game over the next decades. Truthfully, we don’t know what position he played, but right back is as good a guess as any.

Illustration by Filip Peraić

Midfielder (and Honorary Captain):Sócrates

The visionary field general of the Brazilian national team of the 1980s, Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira orchestrated Democracia Corinthiana, an anarcho-syndicalistic takeover of the famed soccer team, and turned it into the best squad in Brazil. The team voted on everything and emphasized the importance of democracy, including printing the words “DIA 15 VOTE” (“vote on the 15th”) on the backs of their shirts prior to the historic 1982 election. Sócrates also helped lead the Direitas Já (“Direct elections, already!”) movement, insisting that Brazil was ready for immediate democracy in 1984, rather than the gradual shift that the junta proposed.

Illustration by Filip Peraić

Midfielder: Afonsinho

During the heyday of the Brazilian dictatorship in the late 1960s, Afonso Celso Garcia Reis (better known as Afonsinho) once plotted the overthrow of the junta with a group of guerrillas. No less revolutionary albeit less dangerous, he also forced a lawsuit through the courts in 1971 that enabled Brazilian players to decide for themselves for which club team they would play. Afonsinho’s wild, flowing beard was dubbed a sign of dangerous nonconformity by authorities—there were even attempts to censor photos of him so that people wouldn’t see his hair and be inspired to rebel. The 66-year-old’s outspoken criticism of Brazil during the lead up to this year’s World Cup shows that his righteous indignation has hardly waned.

Illustration by Filip Peraić

Midfielder:Marta

Still only 28 years old, Marta Vieira da Silva has firmly established herself as one of the greatest women ever to play the game. She has also dedicated herself to the empowerment of girls and the political participation of women with the same ferocity she has devoted to scoring goals. Marta has played for the best women’s professional teams in the world, each year sending back athletic gear and funds to the village where she was born, in hopes of enabling more girls to play sports.

Illustration by Filip Peraić

Forward: Tostão

An accident when he was 6 turned Eduardo Gonçalves de Andrade (Tostão) into a natural leftist: He couldn't even kick with his right foot until he was in his 20s. Side by side with Pelé, he made for an invincible attack that helped Brazil win the 1970 World Cup, but he always insisted, “Playing ball was just a detour on the way to change the world.” Tostão went on to become an op-ed columnist for the Folha de São Paulo, Brazil’s newspaper of record, where he frequently uses international sporting events as metaphors to dive into broader stories about ethics, power, and the human condition.

Forward: Friede

Despite Francisco Carregal’s appearance in a professional soccer game in 1904, black people still couldn’t enter many of the clubs where teams played soccer in 1913. Arthur Friedenreich’s German name got him past the gate. The first great striker for the Brazilian national team, Friede changed ideas about sport and race. After retirement, he sold almost all of his trophies and prizes to support a 1932 revolution against the Vargas dictatorship, a period of change that is now viewed as one of the watershed moments in Brazil’s democratic development.

Illustration by Filip Peraić

Forward: Reinaldo

Many Brazilians call the gloriously scrappy José Reinaldo de Lima the nation’s best player after Pelé. He famously raised his fist in the Black Power salute every time he scored a goal. In Reinaldo’s words, “Each time I scored a goal, it was a blow to racism and to the dictatorship.” Reinaldo’s impact was so great that in 1982 the junta prohibited Tele Santana from calling him up to the national team because of his politics. After retirement, he became a state senator and city councilman, and helped transform the state of Minas Gerais into an international model for development.

Illustration by Filip Peraić

Fan Club:Coligay

In the late 1970s, a group organized by a transvestite performance artist led the fans of Grêmio to away games, bringing joy even to the worst losses with outrageous chants and hilarious songs. Parodying the machismo and homophobia they saw around them by propositioning opposing players to meet them at gay bars after the game, Coligay cheered Grêmio to several championships and opened the way to progressive legislation and attitudes in Porto Alegre.

Illustration by David Schwen

Brazil has won more World Cup titles than any other country, but the nearly 200-year old South American host nation has a legacy of competitors as valiant off the field as on it—so much so that it is possible to imagine a player at every position on the soccer field whose life displayed an abiding commitment to rallying against social inequality.

In three separate decades, the acrobatic Félix Miélli Venerando occupied the Brazilian goal, the highlight of his career coming with the nation’s 1970 World Cup victory. When Félix was done with his goal-saving career, he turned his sights to saving kids, establishing and overseeing a football school for marginalized children in São Paulo, while simultaneously lobbying for better government services on their behalf.

Illustration by Filip Peraić

Defender:Paulo André

While playing for Corinthians, this famed on-field leader almost singlehandedly shut down the vicious Chelsea attack on route to the 2012 Club World Cup. But André’s bold defense extends beyond the field. The 31-year-old has organized the Bom Senso FC, a professional players union in Brazil, and Instituto Paulo André, a nonprofit dedicated to arts education in the favelas of his native city of Campinas.

Illustration by Filip Peraić

Defender:Marinho Peres

Hard-working Marinho Peres was known for sweating until he bled. After a disappointing fourth-place finish at the 1974 World Cup for Brazil, Peres eventually left his native land to play for Barcelona, only to find the Spanish Army planning to press-gang him into uniform not long after. Refusing to bow down to the Fascists, Peres arranged an escape worthy of a spy novel and fled to France.

Illustration by Filip Peraić

Back:Paulo Cézar Caju

Born in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Caju talked his way into a tryout for Botafogo and almost instantly became a star. Flamboyant and combative, he was a dangerous presence on the left side of the attack on Brazil’s 1970 and 1974 World Cup teams, but also in public debates. Caju famously wrote a column in the satirical magazine O Pasquim where he challenged the repression of the military dictatorships. Though other players had grown Afros before him, Caju was perhaps the first to wear one self-consciously as an expression of Black Power in Brazil.

Illustration by Filip Peraić

Back:Francisco Carregal

Until 1904, Brazilian soccer was the domain of rich, white elite, but Francisco Carregal, a black worker on the textile line in Bangu, played the game so well that factory bosses invited him onto their team. Carregal paved the way for Brazil’s poor to dominate the game over the next decades. Truthfully, we don’t know what position he played, but right back is as good a guess as any.

Illustration by Filip Peraić

Midfielder (and Honorary Captain):Sócrates

The visionary field general of the Brazilian national team of the 1980s, Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira orchestrated Democracia Corinthiana, an anarcho-syndicalistic takeover of the famed soccer team, and turned it into the best squad in Brazil. The team voted on everything and emphasized the importance of democracy, including printing the words “DIA 15 VOTE” (“vote on the 15th”) on the backs of their shirts prior to the historic 1982 election. Sócrates also helped lead the Direitas Já (“Direct elections, already!”) movement, insisting that Brazil was ready for immediate democracy in 1984, rather than the gradual shift that the junta proposed.

Illustration by Filip Peraić

Midfielder: Afonsinho

During the heyday of the Brazilian dictatorship in the late 1960s, Afonso Celso Garcia Reis (better known as Afonsinho) once plotted the overthrow of the junta with a group of guerrillas. No less revolutionary albeit less dangerous, he also forced a lawsuit through the courts in 1971 that enabled Brazilian players to decide for themselves for which club team they would play. Afonsinho’s wild, flowing beard was dubbed a sign of dangerous nonconformity by authorities—there were even attempts to censor photos of him so that people wouldn’t see his hair and be inspired to rebel. The 66-year-old’s outspoken criticism of Brazil during the lead up to this year’s World Cup shows that his righteous indignation has hardly waned.

Illustration by Filip Peraić

Midfielder:Marta

Still only 28 years old, Marta Vieira da Silva has firmly established herself as one of the greatest women ever to play the game. She has also dedicated herself to the empowerment of girls and the political participation of women with the same ferocity she has devoted to scoring goals. Marta has played for the best women’s professional teams in the world, each year sending back athletic gear and funds to the village where she was born, in hopes of enabling more girls to play sports.

Illustration by Filip Peraić

Forward: Tostão

An accident when he was 6 turned Eduardo Gonçalves de Andrade (Tostão) into a natural leftist: He couldn't even kick with his right foot until he was in his 20s. Side by side with Pelé, he made for an invincible attack that helped Brazil win the 1970 World Cup, but he always insisted, “Playing ball was just a detour on the way to change the world.” Tostão went on to become an op-ed columnist for the Folha de São Paulo, Brazil’s newspaper of record, where he frequently uses international sporting events as metaphors to dive into broader stories about ethics, power, and the human condition.

Forward: Friede

Despite Francisco Carregal’s appearance in a professional soccer game in 1904, black people still couldn’t enter many of the clubs where teams played soccer in 1913. Arthur Friedenreich’s German name got him past the gate. The first great striker for the Brazilian national team, Friede changed ideas about sport and race. After retirement, he sold almost all of his trophies and prizes to support a 1932 revolution against the Vargas dictatorship, a period of change that is now viewed as one of the watershed moments in Brazil’s democratic development.

Illustration by Filip Peraić

Forward: Reinaldo

Many Brazilians call the gloriously scrappy José Reinaldo de Lima the nation’s best player after Pelé. He famously raised his fist in the Black Power salute every time he scored a goal. In Reinaldo’s words, “Each time I scored a goal, it was a blow to racism and to the dictatorship.” Reinaldo’s impact was so great that in 1982 the junta prohibited Tele Santana from calling him up to the national team because of his politics. After retirement, he became a state senator and city councilman, and helped transform the state of Minas Gerais into an international model for development.

Illustration by Filip Peraić

Fan Club:Coligay

In the late 1970s, a group organized by a transvestite performance artist led the fans of Grêmio to away games, bringing joy even to the worst losses with outrageous chants and hilarious songs. Parodying the machismo and homophobia they saw around them by propositioning opposing players to meet them at gay bars after the game, Coligay cheered Grêmio to several championships and opened the way to progressive legislation and attitudes in Porto Alegre.